Personality and individuality matter in an MMO. This is a world where people either feel they are being represented by their character, or they want that character to have their own personality. Either way people want that character to look good, to stand out, to be that little bit different. To me character customisation is important for that reason. However, that is only part of a jigsaw. On top of that character you wear clothing, that needs to be customisable too. Then their home, let’s make that customisable too. Basically everything should be! But what sort of control will we have over that customisation?

One thing we learnt from the question and answer session this week was related to user driven content. How much could we as players add to the world, and in that way customise our characters and the world around them. Richard, one of the community members, asked if players would be able to create works of art to tell the tales of the world? We actually got a really interesting response which you can hear in the Q&A video hosted by DM21 Gaming.

Firstly, Jermoy ‘Caspian’ Walsh told us about their in-game plans:

We have talked about this before and we hope to provide some pixel painting tools and stuff like that in-game, as just part of entertainment as well as potentially some crafting. That system will be used for doing things like insignias, embroidery and that sort of thing. Tattoos, I mentioned that previously as well.

This to me takes the personality and iderviduality of our character and puts it squarely into our hands. What iconography do you want to represent your character? Okay, sounds good, you go make it! It doesn’t stop there though. Being able to spot someone as a guild member in a crowd because of the embroidery on their tunic. Identifying that letter as truly coming from a member of your secret society as the seal bears their insignia. Having a family tattoo! Player driven designs are not only a great way to really show our individuality but also show we are part of a community. Link us to a group of others with something visual we can share.

The exact method of making these designs and how they are then applied to items is not yet know. However, with Chronicles of Elyria’s component crafting system it could well be that you could add all sorts of detail to items even if they have already been crafted. That means you can add your mark to items you loot as well as craft from scratch.

However, that wasn’t where they stopped talking about player created content:

Before the launch of the game we do want player created content. So, we will be releasing some tools at some point that allow people to submit their own insignias using paint programs. As well as, if they want to, create busts and other 3D model they can see in the game as actual artefacts then people can submit files that we’ll be able to import and use.

There has been several mentions of player content before launch. Based on some of the things appearing in the fan sections of the official forums we have a lot of talented individuals in the community that could contribute greatly to the game. As well as the artist input mentioned above, there has also been talk of community created lore. The ability to write the stories for NPCs or events in the past of Elyria, things that can help bring the world alive.

I think that asking for community supplied content is a really interesting idea for the developers. It is a great way to ask for opinion for one, what do you want to see in this game? Show us. Tell us. Put it in a format where we can put it straight in! That to me seems like the ultimate response to feedback on your game. Feedback you can literally use. Hopefully we will heard more about these systems soon, because I am excited to see what the community come up with.